Clie SJ30 HotSynch crashes WinXP Pro

[dokomeister]

Has anyone else seen this problem?

To reproduce:
Set up Windows XP Professional in Multi-User mode.
Log on as the first user, user1.
HotSynch the Clie (w/ IntelliSynch to Outlook).
Switch users, and log on as the 2nd user, user2.
Switch users back to user1.
Press HotSynch on the Clie

Windows XP Professional will get the blue screen of death.

New Clie, no extra software.
New PC, Windows and Office XP Pro.

No other hardware or software fails on the PC.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris

[dokomeister]

As a followup, emailed and called Sony.

Their response:
1. yes, it's reproducible
2. it must be a microsoft bug
3. don't use winxp multi-user

There seems to be a slightly less drastic circumvention as well (short of a bug-fix for hotsynch): do not put hotsynch in startup. The 2nd user's hotsynch-startup (even though no synch was done by that user) seems to grab the first user's usb port, so switching back to the first user and doing a hotsynch causes it to write to something it no longer owns (which crashes the operating system)

Just manually start hotsynch every time and "exit" removing it from the tray after every usage. This apparently causes it to "re-new" correctly.

[notmuch]

Palm knows about this.... the Palm Desktop s/w doesn't support switching users in XP.... each user needs to log out.

[dokomeister]

Palm knows about it, but...

1. It still shouldn't reboot XP Professional, the OS should call it a program failure but not "blue-screen" itself (I submitted a defect report to Microsoft as well since Sony said it was a MS bug)

2. Sony didn't know about it (or so I was told by the Sony rep to whom the report was originally submitted who told me it was a MS bug)

3. It seems completely trivial to trap in the software, since it is hotsynch "doing it to itself", the 2nd hotsynch could send a msg to the first that it grabbed the port, or hotsynch could handle user switch notifications ... a simple fix

[MartinStockdale]

I presume we're talking about the 'switch user' feature here, rather than logging off and back on again.

If it's switch user that has a problem then I can understand it since all the first users apps, settings etc are maintained in the background while the second user is logged in. The USB port is therefore 'in use' by user 1's Hotsync app and user 2's instance of Hotsync can't get hold of the port. I agree that it shouldn't blue screen XP, but I can see why it's a problem.

If the same thing occurs if user 1 logs off entirely and user 2 logs on then it's a big problem!

I would generally avoid the 'switch user' option as much as possible, I seem to remember seeing Microsoft document it as 'occasional use only': ie, if user 1 is working and user 2 wants to do something quickly (check an email, print a document) then use switch user, but if user 1 has gone away and user 2 started work then user 1 should log off and user 2 log on properly.